Karen Nolan: The blessing of friends

In the more than three decades since she moved to Vacaville as a child, Jenny Watrous has made a lot of friends. Since she began her battle against cancer nearly five years ago, she's discovered just how many.

As that fight intensified in the past year, they've helped to support Watrous financially, since she hasn't been able to devote full time to her skin-care business. Through raffles and hair-cutting fundraisers, her friends in the beauty business in Vacaville and Dixon have "paid my rent and made my car payment so I could work for grocery money this year," says a grateful Watrous.

It's been a blessing, she says, since the cervical cancer she was diagnosed with in 2008 metastisized in her lungs, forcing her back into chemotherapy. The drugs didn't work so well, and then her insurance company balked at paying for a chemo cocktail doctors believe could be significantly more effective.

Her friends grouped around her again, hoping to raise money to bypass the insurance company. They went online and set up a page on GiveForward.com, a company that helps patients raise money for treatments.

Misty Manning Kidd and her cousin, Harley Lipelt, set up the page with the goal of raising $100,000 by May 20. "I just shot for the sky," Kidd says of the goal. "Realistically, we probably aren't going to get that much. But I didn't want to shoot too low."

They could go all the way. After only a few weeks, they are 10 percent toward the goal -- and they are still spreading the word. A Facebook page Kidd set up Sunday to point to the fundraiser already has 144 "likes" on it.

That doesn't surprise Donia West, another friend. "She is such a wonderful person," West says of Watrous. "She's got hundreds of people who literally say 'I love you' to her. That's not three words people casually throw about."

Such words of encouragement are called "hugs" on the GiveForward site, and Watrous reads them all.

"They are empowering and humbling," she says. "I read them and laugh and I get tears in my eyes. I am really blessed."

The encouragement is needed. About the time Kidd put up the webpage, Watrous learned that her cancer had migrated to her brain. She's begun radiation treatment, which is leaving her too exhausted to work. A colleague from Sacramento has volunteered to take care of her clients at Skin Care by Jen at Atma Wholistic Day Spa for the next month.

The radiation also limits the types of drugs that can be used in her chemotherapy. And while she should be able to go back to chemo when radiation is done, it is unclear if she will be able to obtain the drug her doctors believe would be most effective. It's not just an insurance company issue; she's caught up in regulations about drug protocols.

The cancer Watrous behaves more like the kind that typically shows up first in the breast or colon. Even knowing this, Watrous says, insurance companies, hospital boards and federal agencies aren't inclined to let her be treated with the drug that might be effective since it isn't approved for "cervical cancer."

Which is why she is now looking at traveling to less restrictive places for treatment, such as Canada or Mexico -- after she is finished with the radiation.

There is some good news, she adds. This week, she learned that her tumor markers have dropped -- substantially -- for the first time since last fall. And, although she is tired, she is feeling good.

"Nothing is guaranteed in life," she says. "I'm alive and I'm happy. I have people in my life who love me and whom I love dearly. I just want to enjoy that."